Summer in Grado

Ciao i miei amici! School has finally let out and I have started my two month abroad program in Grado Italy.

Monday, May 30, I made the journey from Chicago, Illinois to Trieste, Italy. During the flight, I could feel my excitement building as I was about to begin a new and exciting experience in my life and I could not wait. When I arrived, I was immediately hit with a culture shock. My host family met me at the airport and they knew little to no English. Since I had already taken two semesters of Italian at DePauw I was able to communicate with them in broken Italian but I found myself growing very nervous and unsure if I was even going to survive living in the Italian city, Grado. I specifically remember going to bed with a headache that night, as my brain was fried after trying to translate every conversation that I was attempting to have with my family.

I write this entry on my third day here and although it is still very complicated, I can at least say that it is getting easier. My strategy consists of focusing on keywords and forming a hypothesis on what they’re saying. I was able to order gelato though so I think I’ll get by for now. I do feel however that I’ve learned so much already. Just from talking to my family I have found myself picking up a Grado dialect and I've even caught myself thinking in Italian too. By the end of the two months, I really hope to comprehend and speak the language at a high level.

Other than learning the language, the city of Grado has been great; besides getting lost in the rain with Joe at 2 A.M… Hopefully we can learn the streets of Grado soon so we don't have to go through that again. The other students that are with me from DePauw seem fun and nice as well, which makes this trip even more exciting. The town is beautiful also and I fully expect to spend a lot of time at the beach meeting all le ragazze Italiane; after I finish my studying first of course. All in all, I'm having a great time exploring the city and embracing the culture. Tomorrow is La Festa Della Repubblica, which is equivalent to the 4th of July in America, so I expect to learn even more from that.

Until next time,

Arrivederci